Amid a lot of speculations of favoritism and corruption over the loans sanctioned to Videocon, ICICI Bank has dismissed all the allegations against Chanda Kochhar stating it as a mere rumor. 

In a press release, the bank declared that the board has full confidence and rests complete faith in the bank’s MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar. The statement further mentioned, “On looking at all the facts, the board has come to the conclusion that there is no question of any quid pro quo/nepotism/conflict of interest as is being alleged in various rumors.” 

Recently there were speculations that Deepak Kochhar (spouse of Chanda Kochhar) has received investment in his organization from Videocon as quid pro quo for loans from ICICI Bank.  However, the board dismissed all the speculations saying that in 2012 a consortium of 20 banks and financial institutions had sanctioned a debt consolidation programme for the group, and for its oil & gas capital expenditure plan amounting to about Rs 40,000 crore. ICICI Bank had sanctioned its share of around Rs 3,250 crore, which was less than 10 percent of the consortium’s total facility in April 2012.

The board said that the credit committee, which sanctioned the loan, was chaired by the then chairman of ICICI Bank, K V Kamath and it included independent and working directors of the lender.  The bank also stated that Chanda Kochhar was not the chairperson of that committee.